Enneagram Minnesota upcoming events

Illuminating the Inner Landscape: A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series - Third Session (04/13/2026)

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:30:00 GMT

illuminating the inner landscape: a Spring 2026 Enneagram Series

Third Session in our Four-Part Spring Series
Whether you join us for a single gathering or the full four-month journey, you’ll gain practical insights, deepen your self-understanding, and connect with others in our Enneagram community.

Topic: Denial - It's Not Just a River in Egypt. Understanding our Defense Mechanisms
Date: Monday, April 13, 2026
Time: 6:30-8:30pm CST
Location: Carondelet Center, 1890 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
Presenter: Beth LaRusso, MD, Enneagram Type 6 (she/her)

This spring, we invite you to explore the deeper patterns that shape our Enneagram types through a four-part monthly series designed to expand awareness, insight, and connection. We frequently reference concepts like passion, fixation, focus of attention, and defense strategy—but what do these truly look like in our day-to-day lives? And how do they influence our relationships, our work, and our overall well-being?

To guide our exploration, we’ll use the powerful metaphor of Johari’s Window, a framework that helps illuminate how we see ourselves—and how we are seen by others.

Johari’s Window includes four quadrants:

The Open Area – what is known to both self and others
The Blind Area – what others notice that we may not
The Hidden Area – what we know but keep private
The Unknown Area – aspects of ourselves still waiting to emerge

Each monthly session will dive into one of the four core elements of the Enneagram through this lens, offering a blend of learning, reflection, and community engagement.

To support different learning styles and facilitation approaches, each month may incorporate a mix of type panels, experiential activities, and large or small group processes.

April Series Topic:
Denial - It’s Not Just a River in Egypt. Understanding our defense mechanisms

As a six, have you ever accused someone you love of being angry at you only to realize later that you are actually the one who’s mad? As an eight, how often do you decline help and insist you’re okay even in the face of a major stressor? As a four, have you ever come away from supporting a friend through a hard time only to feel that you yourself are carrying their pain?

These are three examples of defense mechanisms – projection, denial, introjection – unconscious internal processes that seek to shield us from emotional suffering but actually constitute a form of self-deception that alienates us from ourselves and others. Often overlooked in Enneagram teaching, defense mechanisms are considered the glue that holds the personality together, or as Claudio Naranjo explains, “selective ways of sustaining unconsciousness.”

Join us as we peer through the window of personality to see the hidden mechanisms of the psyche and make the invisible visible through a combination of didactics, group discussion, and an invited guest panel.

In-person events are not recorded.

A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series
Attend one, two, or all four sessions!
February | March | April | May

presenter Bio

Elizabeth LaRusso is a board-certified, practicing psychiatrist, an Enneagram coach, and a writer. As a psychiatrist, her expertise is in women’s mental health, medical psychiatry, and physician wellness. As a coach, she primarily works with physicians and other high achievers, using the Enneagram as a tool to cultivate inner curiosity and psychospiritual transformation. Her writing reflects on existential themes of individuation, connection, and the burden of being human — but in a funny way. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and the CP Enneagram Professional Program. She lives in Minneapolis, where she raises teenage children and practices yoga.

You can find her on Linked In and Substack.

Illuminating the Inner Landscape: A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series - Fourth Session (05/11/2026)

Mon, 11 May 2026 23:30:00 GMT

illuminating the inner landscape: a Spring 2026 Enneagram Series

Final Session in our Four-Part Spring Series
Whether you join us for a single gathering or the full four-month journey, you’ll gain practical insights, deepen your self-understanding, and connect with others in our Enneagram community.

Topic: Seeing How We See. An Exploration of Fixations and Focus of Attention.
Date: Monday, May 11, 2026
Time: 6:30-8:30pm CST
Location: Carondelet Center, 1890 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
Presenter: Nikki Shultz, Enneagram Type 7 (she/her)

To guide our exploration, we’ll use the powerful metaphor of Johari’s Window, a framework that helps illuminate how we see ourselves—and how we are seen by others.

Johari’s Window includes four quadrants:

The Open Area – what is known to both self and others
The Blind Area – what others notice that we may not
The Hidden Area – what we know but keep private
The Unknown Area – aspects of ourselves still waiting to emerge

Each monthly session will dive into one of the four core elements of the Enneagram through this lens, offering a blend of learning, reflection, and community engagement.

To support different learning styles and facilitation approaches, each month may incorporate a mix of type panels, experiential activities, and large or small group processes

May Series Topic:
Seeing How We See. An Exploration of Fixations and Focus of Attention.

Enneagram teacher, Claudio Naranjo said that the fixation is the mind's way of sustaining unconsciousness. The greatest freedom we have is our freedom to choose our response. We do not have this freedom when we are unconscious.

“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” - Anais Nin. Here is how this idea plays out with a few Types: A Type 1 walks into a meeting and notices what’s wrong, but doesn't see what’s working. A Type 7 focuses on what’s possible, but doesn't see what’s painful. A Type 3 locks into what needs to get done, but misses how they actually feel. Our Type structure has a focus of attention that filters the world as it sees it, not as it is and as a result, we see an incomplete, distorted reality. And, where attention goes, energy flows. For example: Why do we see a Type 8 use energy to jump to confrontation with a colleague before checking if there’s actually a problem?

The answer is fixations: the mental habit that gives meaning to what we focused our attention on.

So, join us to see how we see. Through activity, teaching, panels and small groups, we will illuminate more of reality together.

In-person events are not recorded.

A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series
Attend one, two, or all four sessions!
February | March | April | May

presenter Bio

Nikki Shultz is an executive coach, organizational consultant, and founder of Courageous Roots Development. She works with senior leaders and executive teams to expand their consciousness and capacity to lead in complex systems. A certified practitioner through the Chestnut Paes Enneagram Academy, Nikki integrates the Enneagram, Vertical Development, and spirituality as pathways for both organizational evolution and personal transformation.

Relationships Between the Essence and the Virtues with Russ Hudson (10/10/2026)

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Enneagram Minnesota welcomes back russ hudson

Two Day, In-Person Workshop: Relationships Between the Essence and the Virtues
Dates & Times:
Saturday, October 10, 2026; 9:00 am - 7:00 pm; and
Sunday, October 11, 2026: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
Location: Northwestern Health Sciences University - 2501 W 84th St, Bloomington, MN 55431
Presenter: Russ Hudson, Enneagram Type 5 / Wing 4 (he/him)
Hospitality: Daily Lunch, Afternoon Snacks, & Coffee and Tea Service

While there is a great deal of material in books and online about the personality traits of the nine types, finding clear understanding of the higher dimensions of the Enneagram points is not as common. There is often a great deal of vagueness and confusion on this topic, and so many simply skip it or come to see it as irrelevant. Yet, coming to terms with the higher aspects opens up real and legitimate inner work, and provides motivation for real change and transformation.

One area of confusion has to do with the lack of understanding of the essential qualities, the Virtues, and the Holy Ideas, so the three often get squashed together as if they were one phenomenon which they most definitely are not. We are born with the essential qualities, though our habit of attention may obscure our awareness of them through much of life. Nonetheless, reconnecting with these qualities and allowing them to support us in holding the difficulties of our type with kindness is the key to our transformation. Once that work is underway, we learn that the Virtues are the real and down-to-earth expressions of a transformed life--they are the symptoms of a purified heart. They reveal that an individual has actually been doing the work and has had their way of life impacted by what they discovered.

In this workshop, Russ will elucidate the ways that the essential qualities open us to the Virtues and help participants customize the ways in which this process can be integrated into their lives.

In-person events are not recorded.

presenter Bio

One of the world’s top teachers and developers of the Enneagram, a system for psychological and spiritual personal growth, Russ Hudson has co-authored five best-selling books including the renowned The Wisdom of the Enneagram, and Personality Types. The Sounds True audiobook Nine Gateways to Presence is the most recent work.

In addition to 40 years of publishing, interviews, teaching and research, Russ developed a scientifically validated test instrument. The Riso-Hudson Type Indicator (RHETI), the leading standard test in the Enneagram field.

Russ is co-founder of the Enneagram Institute and President Emeritus, as well as a Founding Director and former Vice-President of the International Enneagram Association.

He initially encountered the Enneagram through the Gurdjieff Work and saw it as a map for personal self-awareness - more than merely a system for categorizing people.

Russ emphasizes the importance of cultivating presence and mindfulness as a foundation for authentic work with the Enneagram. The approach to aligning the study of the Enneagram with spiritual practice exponentially enhances the personal development process. It is Russ’ desire to bring these mutually compatible tools to greater public awareness.

Currently, Russ teaches mainly through his platform RussHudson.com, where you can find video on-demand classes, a free monthly practice newsletter, offerings, and upcoming events.

Enneagram Minnesota upcoming events

Illuminating the Inner Landscape: A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series - Third Session (04/13/2026)

illuminating the inner landscape: a Spring 2026 Enneagram Series

April Series Topic: Denial - It’s Not Just a River in Egypt. Understanding our defense mechanisms

presenter Bio

Illuminating the Inner Landscape: A Spring 2026 Enneagram Series - Fourth Session (05/11/2026)

illuminating the inner landscape: a Spring 2026 Enneagram Series

presenter Bio

Relationships Between the Essence and the Virtues with Russ Hudson (10/10/2026)

Enneagram Minnesota welcomes back russ hudson

presenter Bio

April Series Topic:
Denial - It’s Not Just a River in Egypt. Understanding our defense mechanisms